Phil Linturn

Establishing Carbon's new Chicago office involves recruitment of all staff, devising creative strategy, generating all primary business relationships, implementing production pipelines and workflows, designing and re-fitting the work space, and overseeing the selection and purchasing of all hardware and software.

In the role of EP, I am the face of the company, responsible for all new business as well as active production on creative projects. In partnership with my creative team leaders this involves all pitching, quoting, line production and delivery of active briefs. My internal management role involves continued recruitment, nurturing career development of all staff, ensuring continued smooth collaboration between the wider network of offices, managing the PnL and all financial reporting to the board.

In close collaboration with the Director of Communications, and the offices in NY and LA, I am responsible for developing the brand and helping to manage the creative reputation of the company. I am always looking for new business opportunities and markets for creative expansion, and for new creative talent to add new and interesting skills to the team.

My brief was to bring the success of the Amsterdam office to the wider network. This required improving the work culture and practices in all offices, appraising all existing staffing and hiring of new talent, maintaining the high standard of creative output, and improving the reputation and PR.

In my time as COO, overall group turnover increased, profits rose, and the creative output expanded significantly, resulting from stronger relationships with key advertising agencies, and a wider reach into the global market, with client-direct work accounting for nearly 50% of turnover in London at my departure.

In appointing, and working closely with, our excellent Communications Director, we achieved an exponential rise in media exposure, invitations to share our expertise on judging panels at Cannes, Eurobest, Ciclope, CCP and Creative Circle, and at universities, animation festivals and creative fairs worldwide. During this same 20 months, Glassworks was awarded 10 Cannes Lions, 13 Eurobest awards (incl 2 Grand Prix and 3 Gold), 6 D&AD pencils, 2 Clios, a BTAA Craft Arrow, a Creative Circle Gold Awards, and 5 Ciclope awards, including 4 Gold statuettes, and the special award for 'Best Post Production Company in Europe'.

My role was to develop and grow the Amsterdam office from a small satellite branch, serving primarily the local market, into a full-service facility with a more robust client base. Together with a world-class creative team and excellent production support, we far exceeded this goal by quickly becoming a world-renowned multi-award-winning creative studio with a global client base. In addition to agencies like 72&Sunny, Wieden+Kennedy, Saatchi, 180, Ogilvy and DDB, we worked directly with brands such as Nike, G-Star, Adidas, Chanel, BMW, and Huawei. Under my leadership, Glassworks Amsterdam’s creative offering also grew significantly, adding color grading, editing, 3d stereoscopic compositing, production, design and direction, and PR.

On leaving this role, I had overseen a doubling in staff, more than a 100% increase in both turnover and profit, a 50% reduction in overheads and running costs, and a full awards cabinet.